This was such a good book, but so slow in some places it needed more drama amongst everything else to keep me interested so 4 out 5.

You follow Wen Alder / Foolish Cur as he tries to navigate his life having being born from a father who is from the empire Sien and a mother who is Nayeni who was conquered by Sien when she was a baby. There is the hardship of testing loyalties of his father or his grandmother. It is a world by each nation has its own magic, and the emperor of Sien who is hundreds of years old is on a mission to bring altogether "so humans are not at the mercy of gods" (not a direct quote but the just of it).

The book is well done, but as I said there was not enough drama, near the end of each section (there are 4) something major happens and you are interested again. I think there didn't needed to be so much focus on his education and parables... or keep them in but flesh everything else out.

The book ended on a great high and makes me want to read the next, I just hope the focus is more on the sorcery, the world and Tenet. Also did any editions have a map? At times I really wanted a map at hand to visualise the vastness of the empire.